So last night I finished Gears of War 3 with my primary gaming crew and have to say I was very impressed. As a person who has followed this great series since it's conception, it's impressive to see how far Epic has taken the franchise.

For those of you who haven't really played Gears of War, the basic idea behind the game is an all out action packed adrenaline based game that keeps you on your toes from beginning to end.  You fight the "Locust horde" which is a species that came up from the ground and launched an all out attack against the human race. Gears of War 3 is the final chapter in the series, attempting to offer an explanation to everything that has been going on for the first two games.

In that, it was a rather unexpected turn of events, but when it comes to action, there are many moments when you will laugh, get emotional and cheer on your friends who are helping you get your hands as bloody as you can. The co-op is simply brilliant and offers a completely seamless experience from the single player – making it hard to believe any modern day game can live up to the same standard as this one.

Epic games has been at the forefront with co-operative gameplay since the beginning, and made astounding strides in Gears of War 2 with the addition of Horde mode. But at any point in time a friend can simply "drop in" to the game and become a part of whatever mode you might be in, whether it be campaign, horde or multiplayer versus. 

The perfect example of this? I was playing horde by myself to try something out and my cousin logged in and before I knew it, he was in the game with me. Within 15 minutes two of his friends had joined and another one of mine. We had a full horde game going without any interruptions or changes in game.

Horde mode has gone through some great changes in Gears 3 as well – offering "base building" similar, but far more advanced, than Zombie mode on Call of Duty: Black Ops. Giving it a whole new spin and strategy building characteristic where teammates need to share and use resources together efficiently to win.

All in all, Gears 3 gets a solid 9.5 from me, I'm sure I have hundreds of hours of horde in me still and $60 is a small price to pay for the amount of entertainment given by this game.